Beware Moldy Cheese Man
by Genuine Apocalypse
Summary: my take on what happened after 'storyteller'..Dinnertime at the Summer's house was never easy to begin with......spoilers up to the most recent episodes with a bit at the end about Angel-W/K, slight Spuffy and X/A.


**Time: **Post 'Storyteller'

**Spoilers: **Pretty much everything up to the most recent episode

**Pairings: **Kennedy/Willow, slight Xander/Anya and Buffy/Spike

**Summary:** my take on what happened in Sunnydale after 'Storyteller'

--

        Getting to dinner time at the Summers' house was never a simple matter to begin with, but with all the extra company they had been entertaining it was much more…_interesting.  _The night after the seal had been closed, Buffy could be found furiously making omelettes over the stove- the only thing that the Scoobies deemed safe to eat when made by her.  

        "Dawn, will you get some eggs from the fridge?" Buffy yelled frantically as she tried to keep the eggs on the frying pan.  No response.  _Damn, she must still be at school- stupid after school activities._

        "Xander!" Buffy yelped in a panic as the cheese started sizzling uncharacteristically loud.  Xander's head popped into the kitchen wearing his usual 'jaunty' expression.

        "What's up Buff?" he asked coming in.  She whimpered and motioned towards the fridge with her head.  "Gotcha."  He ran over to the fridge and swung it open.  The smell hit him like a felled tree.  "Holy Cats!  Which one of the Potentials was on fridge cleaning duty?!?" he said, holding his nose so that he couldn't smell the stench and therefore sounding incredibly nasal.  Buffy shrugged and flipped an omelette, pleased with herself when it didn't fall apart.  

        "It might've been Rona, no way to tell for sure," she said while plopping the omelette onto a platter with the rest.  

        "Well unless we want to spend the rest of our lives battling Moldy Cheese Man instead of the First, we might want to look into it," Xander remarked, holding up a piece of cheese sprouting green fungus and wrinkling his nose.  Anya opened the back door exuberantly, making Xander almost drop his cheese.  

        "Hi," she greeted Xander and Buffy.  Buffy waved and almost dropped her pan while Xander looked down at his shoes awkwardly.  This didn't seem to bother Anya, or indeed affect her at all, as she looked with wide eyes at the cheese in his hands.  "Where _was _that?!? I've been looking everywhere for it, I had a craving for this cheese," she scolded him, grabbing the cheese from Xander.  He made a face.

        "I know you're into foreign food An, but this is ridiculous," he said, nodding towards the cheese that Anya was now attacking with a knife.  She shrugged and popped a piece into her mouth.

        "Aren't I supposed to eat what I like?" she asked through the mouthful.  Meanwhile, Buffy was muttering curses as the pan burnt her finger. 

        "Well Spike likes to eat humans, and we don't let him," Xander reasoned.  Buffy frowned while running her finger under cold water and turning down the flames on the oven.

        "He doesn't anymore Xander," she argued, turning off the tap.  Xander turned around with a slightly embarrassed look on his face.  

        "Just making my point," he said sitting on the countertop, having forgotten completely about the eggs.  

        "The Potentials stole my board!" Andrew's whiny voice entered the kitchen.  

        "Your board?" Buffy asked, amused.  "I thought you wiped all the diagrams off of it last night."  

        "Well I did," Andrew replied, folding his hands in front of him nervously.  "But in the middle of the night I remembered all the time I put into it- I couldn't let it go," he declared, making it sound like the love of his life.  "So, I did it again!  But the Potentials took it and I don't know where they put it, make them give it back!" he demanded to Buffy.  

        "Can't you see I'm a little busy here?" Buffy said, motioning towards the cooking.  "Saving whiteboards isn't exactly my priority right now."  

        "Think you can survive without it?" Xander teased.  "I mean, we know how attached to it you are-"

        "Exactly! So why can't you get it back?" Andrew asked, not catching the sarcasm.  Buffy suppressed a grin while Xander rolled his eyes.  

        "We'll look into it," Buffy promised, sliding another omelette onto the platter.  

        "Thanks! You're the best," Andrew said enthusiastically and scampering out of the kitchen.

        "That boy is without a doubt the most sex deprived human being I have ever encountered," Anya commented.  Having given up trying to make her less blunt ages ago, Buffy and Xander just laughed.  Anya popped in another piece of cheese and then threw the rest of the hunk into the garbage.  "I'm leaving," she announced, and she did just that.  Xander looked after her.

        "Me too- Jeopardy's on," he said to a grinning Buffy, before hurrying out after Anya.  Buffy turned off the oven and turned around to get out plates when Willow and Kennedy came in holding hands.  

        "Hey guys," Buffy said.  "Could you give me a hand with the plates?"  She looked down at the joined hands.  "'Good thing I only require one," she said.  

        "Funny," Willow said, letting go of Kennedy's hand and going to help Buffy.  Kennedy leaned on the counter with her elbows.

        "So any news with the Big Bad Wolf?" she asked.  Buffy looked up from the Little Mermaid plates she was holding and shook her head.

        "Nope."  

        "No more visions?"  Willow suggested.  Another shake of the head.  "Not even a tiny…_flicker _of an undead party pooper?"  

        "No."  

        "Oh," Willow said, disappointed.  

        "Why the glum?" Kennedy asked, swinging her legs a little.  "Isn't that a good thing?"  

        "It means we don't know what's coming," Buffy said simply, sounding grave.  Willow bit her lip worriedly.  Kennedy looked over and smiled.  

        "Hey cheer up Will!"  She clasped her hand once more, making Willow's lips perk up slightly in a smile.  "There's the girl we know."

        "Any drinks in here?" Spike said striding into the kitchen.  Buffy looked at him, arms crossed.  

        "By saying 'drinks', do you mean alcohol or animal blood?" she asked.  

        "Fruit punch actually, I have a hankering to follow in the stained mouth footsteps of a former white wrinkly," he said a little sarcastically while walking to the fridge.  "That wasn't very nice Slayer," he added imitating hurt and picking up a Budweiser, chugging it while slamming the fridge shut.  Spike made a face.  "This is crap- tastes like baboon piss."  Apparently it didn't bother him that much; the can was empty and crushed under his boot within the minute.  He tossed the can into the garbage and met the disapproving eyes of Buffy.  "What?" he asked innocently.  Kennedy stifled a laugh while Willow and Buffy exchanged 'Men!' looks.  Spike shrugged and hopped onto the counter next to the current pride and joy of the kitchen: the new microwave.  

        "Andrew will throw a hissy fit if you do something to it," Buffy warned, motioning to the microwave.  

        "Well, the little boy will find that there is more than one microwave in this world soon enough," he teased.  Kennedy whispered something in Willow's ear meanwhile, making the redhead laugh and get dragged out of the room.

        "We'll be back for dinner Buffy, I promise!" Willow called as she left.  Buffy shook her head laughing.

        "Take your sweet time," she replied, counting plates.  Spike put his hand down to come in contact with the cutlery drawer; he opened it quickly and grabbed a handful of knives and forks to begin counting them.  

        "One, two, three, four, five, six…" he stopped.  "How many of the rabble are eating tonight?" Buffy paused, a worn Peter Rabbit plate in her hands.  

        "I'm not sure.  Might as well set up for all of them then," she reasoned sighing, bending down and getting out a huge pile of plates.  Buffy blew on them and a dust cloud flew off of it.  "We haven't used these in awhile," she said looking at them.  

        "For all I know, that could be one of my old mates," Spike said, looking down at the dust.  Buffy shrugged and started un-stacking the plates.

        "Probably is."  

        "_Old _mates," Spike repeated, emphasizing the word 'old'.  Buffy sighed again, leaning against the counter with the sink.  

        "I know Spike.  Look…" she seemed to stop so that she could group her words together in the right fashion.  "I didn't mean to be so harsh…you know, after Chloe-" It was too painful to think of the once lively girl strung up from the ceiling like an ominous puppet, swaying back and forth.  

        "Don't worry about it, I didn't dwell on it for _too long," he said, filling in the uncomfortable silence._

        "Good," she said softly.  Before Spike could say anything, Dawn had bounced into the kitchen. 

        "You'll never _believe _what happened today!" she squealed enthusiastically.  Spike and Buffy both raised an eyebrow.  "Well- maybe you will," she faltered.  "But it's really interesting I swear!" she added hastily.  Spike put the knives and forks on the countertop, now in their respective separated piles, while Buffy listened.  "Wood gave us a speech today.  He said that if anything, _anything happened in the next two days, we have no school!"  Dawn paused for Buffy and Spike to comment._

        "Umm…yay?" Buffy offered lamely.  

        "Come on! No school! Don't you remember what it was like to have no school when you were supposed to?" Dawn wheedled.

        "Last time I checked, no school when there's an apocalypse coming doesn't really register on the Importance Scale."  Dawn's face fell at this realization.

        "Oh."

        "Don't worry Niblet," Spike cut in, getting off the countertop and starting to walk out of the room.  "I'm excited about the lack of learning thing, no fear."  Dawn rolled her eyes but grinned.

        "Well thank you, oh enthused one," she said, sitting on a kitchen stool and watching Buffy set out plates absently as Spike went to go watch television.  

        "Sounds like school's getting more and more interesting," Buffy said.

        "Well, so is everything," Dawn replied.  "I mean, first there's this 'The First', then all these wannabe Slayers, then Angel called-"

        "Angel called?" Buffy interrupted, dropping the plastic plate she was holding with a clatter.  Dawn nodded.

        "Yeah…I thought I told you.  It was really weird," she mused, putting her head on her hand.  "He said something like 'Hi Dawn, is your sister there?' I said that you were upstairs and he said 'She is?' and hung up.  Maybe it was a bad connection or something," she said breezily.  Buffy bent down slowly to pick up the plate, a bad feeling in her stomach.  

        "Dawnie, could you get Willow for me?" she asked casually.

        "Sure," Dawn said, getting up.  "Willow!!!"  She stood at the bottom of the steps and yelled up.  Buffy sat down on a kitchen chair clutching the plate in her hands.  Without warning it snapped into two, leaving her with two shards of green plastic.

        "And yet another side effect of the super strength factor," she muttered to herself, tossing the pieces in the garbage.  _Something's wrong in __L.A._, Buffy thought.  _He wouldn't just hang up like that, or lose the connection and not call.  Not Angel.  But maybe… _Her eyes widened.  From the simple message Dawn had relayed came the 'what ifs'- the things that inevitably come when you're worried.  The worst case scenarios, the ones you hope never to live ever.  

        "What is it Buffy?"  Buffy looked up quickly to see Willow's genuinely concerned face.  

        "I need you to call L.A. Please."  Willow nodded, not asking fro an explanation but clearly dying for one as she picked up the phone and dialed the number of Angel Investigations.

--


End file.
